A matter of life and death (especially death)

A matter of life and death (especially death)

Thus said Matthew Prior, writing 300 years ago, and the aphorism is timeless. What has changed is the public cost of staying the Grim Reaper’s hand that extra day. Stephen Hall’s story concerns the immunotherapy of cancer, and a mesmerising read it is. His dramatis personae range from the wholly admirable to quite a number who one would not wish to meet in an alley on a dark night. The narrativ...

cardiac surgery: a matter of life or death

A Matter of Life and Death?

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A matter of bacterial life and death.

Over 50 years ago, standard microbiological methods were established for determining whether bacterial cells were dead or alive. Recently there has been a flurry of reports suggesting that bacteria may exist in an eclipsed state, escaping detection by standard methods. Whether there really is such a state is of more than academic interest, considering the implications for public health. The ens...

Euthanasia: a matter of life or death?

right to hasten death’ ... but on well established, traditional rights to bodily integrity and freedom from unwanted touching.”41 Taken in their totality, these cases show that the American courts have cleaved closely to the guiding principle of one’s liberty to refuse unwanted medical treatment, and have thus far shown no signs of crossing to the other side of the act-omission divide. 35. Wash...